It was a hot summer day in July of 1923. Charles Hesse had been digging a pit for his new septic tank all morning over in the Clearlake Park area of Lake County, California. Charlie made pretty good progress with his old pick and shovel. Just before lunch he dug down to a depth about waist high. After lunch, he jumped back down into the pit to continue his labor. As Hesse landed, a portion of the pit floor fell away revealing the top of a human skull. Hesse carefully continued to dig and as he did… Lo and Behold! An entire skeleton appeared. This chance discovery would cut short the spiritual journey of what may be one of North America’s oldest known inhabitants and start those ancient remains on a different kind of voyage. The rest of this story exemplifies one of the most unique pre-historic to modern day dilemmas in America.

After languishing in the possession of the Hesse family for over a decade, 1937 marks the year when the ancient bones discovered by Mr. Hesse were examined by Mark Raymond Harrington, renowned Curator of the South-Western Museum located in Los Angeles, California. According to Ruth Tennyson, the daughter of Charles Hesse, Harrington suggested that Borax Man could be the oldest human being ever found in the Western United States. (Keep in mind that Harrington examined the bones when carbon dating and other dating technologies had not yet been invented).

In 1948, after years of archeological excavations conducted by Mr. Harrington at Borax Lake, he claimed that the site was 10,000 to 12,000 years old (Harrington 1948). His bold claim would set the popular perception of California’s pre-historic habitation on its scholarly ear. The accepted theory of the day was that early migrations over the Bering Straits bypassed California and went directly East to the Great Plains and beyond. Harrington’s orthodox peers, sure of their convictions, ridiculed and discredited his outlandish claims. It would be over three decades until Harrington’s vindication.

In 1970, U.C.L.A. Professor of Anthropology: Clement W. Meighan and Southern Methodist University Professor of Geology: C. Vance Haynes published a scientific paper from their work at the Borax Lake Site (Meighan & Haynes-Science 1970), near to where the Hesse specimen was found. They stated the site was first inhabited at least eleven or twelve thousand years ago and said it was likely the site was much older. The Meighan/Hayes findings were backed by modern day Obsidian Hydration Testing and based in part on artifacts obtained from the earlier work of M.R. Harrington. That testing, although somewhat suspect, indicated a few artifacts dated to 48,000 B.P. Later and deeper excavations in the area confirmed and expanded upon the Meighan/Hayes findings. In one such dig, Lake County’s own Dr. John Parker has published a paper (Parker 2013:58) in which he discovered artifacts dated to 21,000 B.P.

To this author’s knowledge, the revised dates of Borax Lake habitation put forth by this illustrious group of modern day anthropologists could still make the Hesse discovery the oldest human remains found in the Western United States, and a valid rival to other claims of early U.S. habitation by ancient man. The dates confirmed by Hayes, Meighan, Parker and others, in the very least, gives factual support to Harrington’s initial claim that California was inhabited much earlier than previously believed by his peers.

The Hesse specimen traveled to a handful of institutions for additional study and has been referred to as: “Stone Hatchet Man”, “Clearlake Man” and “Borax Man”. For our purposes, we have chosen to use the title of: Clearlake Man.

Among the institutions allowed to examine Clearlake Man was San Francisco State University (UCSF). The skull was cleaned and reconstructed there. Per that forensic examination, the specimen was said to be a surprisingly healthy forty-five to fifty year old male at the time of death. Blunt trauma to the head and a “crude” obsidian point lodged in the shoulder blade surely led to his speedy demise. Skull shape and measurements alluded to a human most likely of Aleut/Caucasian descent. One odd determination was that the skull’s ear holes were completely closed over with bone growth. Dr. Parker has stated that this is not an unusual feature of human beings accustomed to hunting, trapping and fishing in cold water. Today, this radical physiological response to such harsh environmental conditions is known as “Surfer’s Ear” or Extosis. Unfortunately, DNA Testing, Carbon Dating and Obsidian Hydration techniques were not available when the UCSF examination was conducted.An additional interesting find in the grave itself was: “a stone hatchet and a crude obsidian point”. Currently, the disposition of these two artifacts is unknown. That is a real shame because the obsidian artifact could now be tested to date the gravesite.

The ancient remains of Clearlake Man eventually traveled back to Lake County where for many years he was displayed at Ruth Tennyson’s “Indian Museum” in Lower Lake, California. Sometime later, she donated those skeletal remains to the Lake County Courthouse Museum. The bones were shuffled around the county museum system for years, collecting dust in an old aquarium. Along with Clearlake Man, the Lake County Museums had collected twenty-three sets of burial remains, most by “anonymous” donation. It was a strange collection. One was said to have been the finger bone of a human exhumed in Merced County when a dam was constructed there. Another specimen was a skull sent from the San Francisco Police Department. One box was said by museum staff to contain a femur bone of a human estimated to be at least seven feet tall. (There are ancient legends of a race of giants living in the Blue Lakes area of Lake County). Only three sets of remains had enough provenance to definitively determine they were of South-Eastern Pomo origins.

In 1993, newly enacted Federal Legislation known as The Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) required that all indigenous human remains collected by any institutions or archeologists on Federal land, using Federal funds or permits must be returned to the earth. In some cases, other institutions not associated with the Feds, although not required to, also complied with the spirit of the Federal mandate.

It would seem the modern day journey of Clearlake Man had come full circle and he could now be reburied in a traditional manner. Alas, this would not be the case.

Before Lake County’s collection of native remains was reburied, an informal archeological inventory was conducted by local Anthropologist Elyn Walker on behalf of the County of Lake. Unfortunately, a lack of funding prohibited an in-depth study with up-to-date technology. Afterwards, the task of repatriation became the responsibility of Lake County Museum Curator: Donna Howard. Ms. Howard wished to return the remains as directed by NAGPRA and her own conscience, but to whom? The Native American Heritage Commission, (NAHC) then stepped in.

The NHAC, a state advisory panel on California Native American issues, reviewed the case and determined the remains were: “in a state of unrest and must be reburied”. Local Native American Lake Miwok elder Nelson Hopper agreed with the NHAC. However, the remains were never reclaimed by the Miwok Nation, South-Eastern Pomo, or any other band of the Pomo Nation. According to student researcher Amorilys De Von Gudmunson, an anonymous local tribal member told her, in essence, that the remains could not, in good conscience, be re-buried in any of the local sacred burial grounds due to their state of “unrest.”

It was then proposed the remains could be re-interred at Anderson Marsh State Park. Unfortunately, according to local Pomo/Elem leader Jim Brown III, those negotiations fell through due to the inability of a multitude of County, State and Federal agencies involved in the process to work together in a cohesive manner, under such difficult and unusual circumstances. Therefore, responsibility of repatriation was again returned to the hands of Museum Curator Donna Howard.

Curator Howard enlisted the help of Eric Krenz and Lower Lake’s Special District Two Cemetery Board to complete the morbid task. Mr. Krenz, who later became the cemetery’s sexton, stated that Curator Donna Howard urged him and the cemetery board to bury the remains. The board agreed and graciously donated a plot. All of the boxed and tagged remains were then placed in a sarcophagus; an airtight coffin made by modern man. (The coffin was donated by the local mortuary owner, the late Randall Boyett).

Mr. Krenz realized the importance of Clearlake Man and felt that additional research should have been performed before repatriation, but his opinion fell on deaf ears and empty pockets. He added a steel plate over the top of the casket to insure the future integrity of the remains. Good call Mr. Krenz! However, Clearlake Man and this odd collection of Native American remains were not re-interred directly into the earth as is customary to honor the spiritual beliefs of the local native people. Twenty-four ancients have all been entrapped in this casket, buried in an unmarked plot since 1995. No acceptable solution is in sight. In fact, these souls are still in a state of “unrest”, as their final journey to the Spirit World has been interrupted.

This situation, although difficult, is not unusual in the world of anthropology in the U.S.A. Despite the repatriation edict of NAGPRA, many of our college institutions and museums still retain many boxes of ancient human remains. It is not that these repositories wish to keep them, but rather that some remains are unidentifiable, or the tribe no longer exists, while others are unclaimed or unwanted by the tribes due to desecration and/or red tape. It is a difficult dilemma that requires a well thought out and respectful resolution.

Will Clearlake Man and the other ancients encased in a modern day casket here in Lake County ever complete their journey to the indigenous people’s version of Valhalla? Will the circle ever be completed and proper respect shown? Sounds like a job for Congressmen Garamendi and Thompson, for it is likely that only an act of Congress can make it so. The intent of NAGPRA was honorable, but it would appear that the actual enforcement of this legislation has fallen far short of its goal. This difficult situation demands some sort of closure for the tribes. It is only fair.

The enigma that is Clearlake Man isTo Be Continued…Thanks to Dwain Goforth, Linda Lake, Lower Lake’s Schoolhouse Museum and Lakeport’s Courthouse Museum files for the basis of this article.

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